San Pedro Square Market Live Music: Join SPSM and San Jose Jazz for a live performance with Raq Filipina on Friday, Februrary 21st @ 7:00pm in the market garage.

Raq Filipina’s music is a unique mix of Filipino roots with Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Caribbean and chill electronica sounds. Her songs are mysterious and uplifting, innovative and modern, nostalgic and iconoclastic. Her voice is sultry, haunting and sensuous.She’s an award winning composer and performer who grew up in a musical family in the San Juan neighborhood in Manila, singing and dancing from a young age. Since she arrived in the United States as a young woman, she has sung, danced and performed a range of styles, earning recognition and numerous awards along the way. In early 2010, the legendary world music producer Greg Landau contacted her to work on a new project combining roots music of the Philippine Islands with eclectic rhythms and a touch of electronica. The chemistry of Raq Filipina’s compositions and Landau’s innovative production was immediate and powerful, and they have recorded a unique album.

The San Jose Challenge urban adventure race is returning to Silicon Valley on Sunday, March 23rd, 2014

The Challenge is a ridiculously fun “Amazing Race” style competition packed into one incredible day. Teams of two or more will dash around the city, racing against other Challengers for immortal glory (and cash prizes!) as they solve tricky clues, strategize the best route, and explore undiscovered corners of the city.

Think of it like a 5K that tests your brains as much as your legs, with bigger prizes and a whole lot more fun--we guarantee you’ll have a blast!

An amazing, active way to spend a Sunday with friends in SJ! Don't worry—fitness is a plus, but you’ll need a blend of smarts AND speed to win this race!

And at the finish line, we’ll welcome you back with cold water, food and drink specials, music, costume contest and awards ceremony for our winners!

San Pedro Square Market Live Music: Join SPSM for a special performance with A Yawn Worth Yelling Band on Saturday, February 15th, 2014 @ 8:00pm

For emerging indie-rock outfit A Yawn Worth Yelling, thinking different is more than just a revolutionary marketing catchphrase; it’s an ethic deeply ingrained in the personalities of the young musicians that comprise the San Jose, California four-piece. “Our musical tastes and backgrounds are diverse, so challenging ourselves to make different and exciting music is second nature to us,” states lead vocalist, guitarist, and percussionist Tyler Boyd. The band’s sophisticated, and whimsical indie-rock sound hosts dashes of math-rock, alternative rock, and even R&B, with the experimental style paying homage to influences such as The Dirty Projectors, The Dear Hunter, Manchester Orchestra, and Joanna Newsom, among others. As bassist Johannes Heine adds; “We love the unpredictability and foreignness of experimental artists. It’s definitely a creative ambition of ours to channel that degree of musicianship.”

Since their early-2011 inception, the band has been ever-active in the studio, having amassed an EP and a full-length to their name. As lead guitarist Brayden Deskins explains, “Our debut full-length ‘Hieme Bellum’ is really special to us. It’s a concept album about a kid who becomes fascinated with death and learns that love is more powerful than negative thoughts and feelings. It’s weird and it’s perfectly us – our individual personalities and spontaneity really shines through.” With an unshakeable group dynamic and chemistry, the future looks bright for the band. “We’re best friends and we want to make music together. We want our music to reach as many people who enjoy what we have to say as possible. There’s nothing that could be more fulfilling than that for us,” adds drummer Taylor Stover. The band will be releasing new music and touring extensively, particularly around the west-coast, for the remainder of 2014.

San Jose Jazz Winter Fest 2014, presented by Metro, continues its trend of providing a “cool” counterpart to the celebrated Summer Fest by presenting emerging jazz talent that’s pushing the art form forward. They also place a spotlight on education with two afternoons of student band performances accompanied by master classes taught by some of their featured performers.

Student performances include the San Jose Jazz High School All Stars, San Jose State University Jazz Orchestra, and Folsom High School Jazz Band. Master classes will be led by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Amina Figarova, and Taylor Eigsti.

San Pedro Square Market Live Music: Join SPSM for a live performance with Casey Frazier on Saturday, February 8th, 2014 @ 8:00pm

Casey Frazier is a talented songwriter, singer and guitarist with an eclectic Americana sound with roots in country and 70s rock. Casey was born in Missouri, grew up in a small mountain town near Denver, Colorado, and spent a reasonable amount of his adolescence in Nashville, Tennessee. Casey has recently relocated to the Central Coast of California in order to continue his songwriting and expand his West Coast presence. He has shown incredible talent and growth as an artist, with upwards to 150 songs, two full-length albums, two EPs and another album on the way. He spends his time between Nashville and California. He is hoping to start expanding his audiences by taking his albums live, as well as creating a more dynamic online and print-media presence.

San Pedro Square Market Live Music: Join SPSM and San Jose Jazz for a live performance with Charged Particles on Friday, February 7th, 2014 @ 7:00pm

Charged Particles combines three jazz virtuosos in an exciting collaboration of styles, genres, and sounds. Band mates Murray Low, Aaron Germain, and Jon Krosnick mix jazz with elements of Latin music, classical, funk, and other genres in close nit spontaneity. This group arranges their own original songs and give unique twists to classic jazz standards from Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Richard Rogers, others.

Charged particles made its debut on NPR’s “Detroit Jazz Alive" program, and since then has performed at festivals and clubs around the country. They released their self-titled CD Charged Particles in 1994, and Sparks in 2002. Both CD’s have received national air play and international recognition. Charged Particles have even opened for national recording artists such as Stanley Jordan, Yanni, and Al DiMeola, and played with famous drummers Peter Erskine and Dennis Chambers.